"The catch is, not enough scenery of crisp verdure, or an artificial brook of dainty Japanese lanterns, nor a doughty, noble, deeply-felt performance from Lee Sinje, can save this plodding vehicle from swanning along to its finish line, and Lin's partisan leanings gets blatantly offensive in his outrageous depiction of the acquisitive and savage Malayan communist rebels. Also Yun Ling's over-intimate relationships with both British colony, and Aritomo, the man might or might not be a Japanese spy, from a country that wantonly brings inexpressible suffering and bereavement to her, are problematic, to say the least. As an intimate, personal story, THE GARDEN... is poetic, touching, if overwrought in its final application, but if one tries to obtain a critical take on Malaya's WWII turbulence and its colonial days, the outcome is cripplingly jaundiced and romanticized."

read the full review on my blog: cinema omnivore, thanks

Not quite the movie I thought it would be, I expected it to be good and it was.... good enough to moderately satisfy. People say the story of comfort women in WW2. Much like the Holocaust, when you make a movie about a tough subject you better make sure you do it right. But I wouldn't even really say this movie was about comfort women AKA sex slaves in the Japanese Military. So while I liked it, it just about did its job, it doesn't really go above and beyond.

Its a very slow and quiet (mostly) movie that tells a story of a woman attempting to hire a Japanese man in post-WW2 Malaya to make the dream garden of her younger sister who was a sex slave. Anyway, won't wrote an entire synopsis but I will speak on the film itself. Its very well shot and the story managed to hold my moderate interest. There are some twists and turns at the end and while it was interesting semi-"climax", it didn't knock my socks off like some of the other famous film shock endings. And thats possible due to the writing of the characters, one character has her motivations and we sympathize with that, but thats about it. She's missing any sort of complication or nuance, its very clear what she's thinking and what she as a character is about. The other main actor is stoic und unreadable with small moments of humanity. While his intentions and secrets are revealed, it again was not enough to knock my socks of, because I only moderately sympathized and felt with the characters.

And the acting was passable for the most part. The Brits give a passable performance and so do the Japanese soldiers and Communist insurgents. But the main lead was odd to me. It could be the cultural divide as far as the expression of emotion, vocally and with facial inflection, but I didn't really care for it. And the films tone is strong, possibly too strong, possibly trying a little bit too hard? Not really sure but I liked it an any heavy handed shots and sequences didn't bother me too much.

All in all it was ok, I liked it, and I suppose people interested in the story of Comfort Women should probably look elsewhere, but fans of your typical romance/war setting film. Give it a shot.

This movie should be lauded for ambition. Tackling an issue like comfort women isn't going to be easy. Compound it with other heavy weights like loyalty, independence, then adding intrigues like the gold of Yamashita and trying to present them in a digestible package under 2 hours, the problem is obvious. The central love theme could not be developed convincingly. In a more assured hand like Ozu, the quiet scenes could have been really evocative. With some one like Kurosawa, the tension of the hanging, violence of rape or unstated pressure of recall etc would have been palpable. Instead it is presented rather without emotion. Even the pain of the tattoo just could not lift beyond the screen. But credit must be given to the producers and director for their attempt. Sufficient time has passed for the history of WW2 to be visited with an objective eye. Hope HBO would continue to put their resources into making such movies.